A mood is an emotional state. Moods differ from emotions in that they are less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event. Moods generally have either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people typically speak of being in a good mood or a bad mood.
Mood also differs from temperament or personality traits which are even longer lasting. Nevertheless, personality traits such as optimism and neuroticism predispose certain types of moods. Long term disturbances of mood such as depression and bipolar disorder are considered mood disorders. Mood is an internal, subjective state, but it often can be inferred from posture and other behaviors. One can be sent into a mood by an unexpected event, from the happiness of seeing an old friend to the anger of discovering betrayal by a partner. One may also just fall into a mood. Research also shows that a person's mood can influence how they process advertising. Further mood has been found to interact with gender to affect consumer processing of information.
Lack of Sleep
Sleep is a major factor in the mood. If one is sleeping deprived you could become more irritable, angry, more prone to stress, and less energized throughout the day. “Studies have shown that even partial sleep deprivation has a significant effect on mood. University of Pennsylvania researchers found that subjects who were limited to only 4.5 hours of sleep a night for one week reported feeling more stressed, angry, sad, and mentally exhausted. When the subjects resumed normal sleep, they reported a dramatic improvement in mood”.
Medical Conditions
Depression, chronic stress, bipolar disorder, etc. are considered “mood disorders”. It has been suggested that such disorders result from chemical imbalances in the brain's neurotransmitters, however some research challenges this hypothesis.
Negative Mood
Like positive moods, negative moods have important implications for human mental and physical wellbeing. Moods are basic psychological states that can occur as a reaction to an event or can surface for no apparent external cause. Since there is no intentional object that causes the negative mood, it has no specific start and stop date. It can last for hours, days, weeks, or longer. Negative moods can manipulate how individuals interpret and translate the world around them, and can also direct their behavior.
Negative moods can affect an individual's judgment and perception of objects and events. In a study done by Niedenthal and Setterlund (1994), research showed that individuals are tuned to perceive things that are congruent with their current mood. Negative moods, mostly low-intense, can control how humans perceive emotion-congruent objects and events and tend to affect their judgments and perceptions. These negative moods may lead to problems in social relationships. For example, one maladaptive negative mood regulation is an overactive strategy in which individuals over dramatize their negative feelings in order to provoke support and feedback from others and to guarantee their availability. A second type of maladaptive negative mood regulation is a disabling strategy in which individuals suppress their negative feelings and distance themselves from others in order to avoid frustrations and anxiety caused by others' unavailability.
Negative moods have been connected with depression, anxiety, aggression, poor self-esteem, physiological stress and decrease in sexual arousal. Negative moods are labeled as nonconstructive because it can affect a person's ability to process information. This can lead to problems in social relationships with others. Negative moods, such as anxiety, often lead individuals to misinterpret physical symptoms.
Positive Mood
Positive mood can be caused by many different aspects of life as well as have certain effects on people as a whole. Good mood is usually considered a state without an identified cause; people cannot pinpoint exactly why they are in a good mood. People seem to experience a positive mood when they have a clean slate, have had a good night sleep, and feel no sense of stress in their life.
“Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem solving and flexible yet careful thinking”. “There have been many studies done on the effect of positive emotion on the cognitive mind and there is speculation that positive mood can affect people minds in good or bad ways. Some studies had stated that positive moods let people think creatively, freely, and be more imaginative. People in a positive mood are usually easier to talk to and want to have longer conversations compared to someone who is in a negative or neutral mood. Lastly positive mood can help people in situations where heavy thinking and brainstorming is involved. Positive mood has also been proven to show negative effects on cognition as well. According to the article “Positive mood is associated with implicit use of distraction”. “There is also evidence that individual in positive moods show disrupted performance, at least when distracting information is present”. The article states that other things in their peripheral views can easily distract people who are in good moods. The study is basically stating that it would be harder for positive moods to focus on the task at hand. In particular, happy people may be more sensitive to the hedonic consequences of message processing than sad people. Thus, positive moods are predicted to lead to decreased processing only when thinking about the message is mood threatening. In comparison, if message processing allows a person to maintain or enhance a pleasant state then positive moods need not lead to lower levels of message scrutiny than negative moods. It is assumed that initial information regarding the source either confirms or disconfirms mood-congruent expectations. Specifically, a positive mood may lead to more positive expectations concerning source trustworthiness or likability than a negative mood. As a consequence, people in a positive mood should be more surprised when they encounter an untrustworthy or dislikable source rather than a trustworthy or likable source.
While numerous antidepressant drugs are currently available and are partially effective, most fail to produce remission in a significant fraction of patients. This lack of adequately efficacious antidepressants may be due to our present inadequate understanding of the underlying pathophysiology and neurobiology of major depression.
A number of drugs and procedures have been developed to overcome some of these difficulties. These include ketamine (Zarate, et al., Arch Gen Psychiatry 2006; 63: 856-864), 5HT4 receptor agonists (Lucas, et al, Neuron, 2007; 55: 712-725), deep brain stimulation (Mayberg, et al, Neuron 2005; 45: 65 1 -660, 2005), agomelatin ( asper, et al., World J Biol Psychiatry 2009; 10: 1 17-126), and antagonists of CRF (Zoumakis, et al, Ann N Y Acad Sci 2006; 1083: 239-251), N 1 (Ebner, et al, Curr Pharm Dei 2009; 1 5: 1647-1674), kappa opioid (Carr, et al, Neuropsychopharmacology 2010; 35: 752-763) , and cholecystokinin (Smadja, et al, Psychopharmacology 1997; 132: 227-236) receptors. While some of these agents appear to have an increased speed of action, they may not possess greater efficacy and may have further limitations themselves in terms of degree of invasiveness, losses of efficacy with chronic administration, and dissociative side effects.
The family Fagaceae, or beech family, comprises about 900 species of both evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs, which are characterized by alternate simple leaves with pinnate venation, unisexual flowers in the form of catkins, and fruit in the form of cup-like (cupule) nuts. Fagaceous leaves are often lobed and both petioles and stipules are generally present. Fruits lack endosperm and lie in a scaly or spiny husk that may or may not enclose the entire nut, which may consist of one to seven seeds. The best-known group of this family is the oaks, genus Quercus, the fruit of which is a non-valved nut (usually containing one seed) called an acorn. The husk of the acorn in most oaks only forms a cup in which the nut sits.
Several members of the Fagaceae have important economic uses. Many species of oak, chestnut, and beech (genera Quercus, Castanea, and Fagus respectively) are commonly used as timber for floors, furniture, cabinets, and wine barrels. Cork for stopping wine bottles and a myriad of other uses is made from the bark of cork oak, Quercus suber. Chestnuts, a tasty treat enjoyed by many in the winter, are the fruits from species of the genus Castanea. Numerous species from several genera are prominent ornamentals, and wood chips from the genus Fagus are often used in flavoring beers.
There is still a need for an effective, natural and safe composition for the prevention and/or treatment of fatigue, anxiety and sleep disorders, improving mood, reducing tension and raising energy in a subject.